CSV vs. GPX files for a Nuvi 660?? Convert or....

Poiloader will convert the GPX file to the GPI file that the 660 uses, unless you want to load the GPX file into EPE a save it as a CSV file on your computer. As for audio and logos I find that they usually get associated to CSV files on this site, but if your search the sounds and logos you might find something you like. The audio and logos don't usually get imbeded into the GPX files that I have seen or made.

Not only can you load GPX files into the Garmin or a flash card in the Garmin but you can mix GPX & CSV files (as many of both as you like, subject to memory considerations) at the same time.

Fred

Try doing a search.

Yes you can load them without any changes using POILoader.

They aren't encrypted, it means that there aren't any Icons or Audio files associated with them.

As a FYI gpx files usually contain more info that what a csv file does.

I have a mix of csv & gpx POI files loaded on my 660. Some with icons, some not. Some with sound files, some not. It all works fine.

If you have a gps with bluetooth/phone capability, using GPX POI allows you to add a phone number in the Phone field. This way, you can call that phone number easily from your GPS. On my 37xx, I can also make a search by phone number.

The link field in a GPX allows you to add a picture and some audio. The picture can be seen in the More page of the POI. The audio can also be played from the same place. Obviously, those 2 are optional.

I was working on my navy ships file adding photographs for each ship so that when you approach it and you touch it, a small thumbnail of the picture shows up and when you touch it, on my 1450 a full 5 inch jpg photograph shows up. For this discussion I used Tourpoint Editor and converted the GPX to CSV and then loaded it to my micro card and inserted it in my Garmin. The POILOADER only reads the first 4 columns and not the link so the photographs did not show up.

I wanted to make sure I was understanding your post.

I understand you to say that a GPX file with your 1450 produced a thumbnail when you approached a navy ship (I assume these are fixed tourist locations) and THEN would show a full picture.

I then understand you used Tourpoint Editor to turn this GPX file into a CSV file and hoped that the links made possible in the GPX file would be translated and used by POILoader - but they didn't.

I would not have expected the CSV file to do anything with a picture. Did you?

If misunderstood I blame myself. If I have my personal POI of Naval ships showing and in my case I will use the German Submarine U505 in Chicago. I tap the screen and up comes the description of the sub with driving time and cost to get there. Also is a thumbnail of the photograph and if I tap it I have a full 5 inch photograph of the sub.
This can be used with other type of POI's for when I tap my son's home I have a photograph of my grandchildren come up.

I have to expand this statement and say that if one wants to expand their file they have to use GPX instead of CVS files for POIloader only reads the first 4 columns of the CVS file.
Now that we have entered this question I would like to know if I can somehow enter my photographs on my SD card for use and not the Garmin hard drive for this would save me much space and I could change SD cards as the need came up. I already have deleted unnecessary files that I do not need such as all the EULA files in various languages, temporary translation files(I already have been to Portugal) and others one does not need if one is staying in the USA and does not need foreign languages. The deletion of these files gave me about 37 meg extra of space that was wasted.
Maybe the latter should be a separate thread.

If you want to move your POI files to your SD card, just copy the .gpi file created by POI Loader to the /POI folder on your SD card. If you GPS ask to merge those POIs with the other ones, just say No.

With all files that I do not need on the Garmin deleted I had about 329 MB of free space. 89 photographs take up about 4MB of space so one could run out of space and have to make a decision between them or more POI's. I hooked my Garmin to the computer and made a folder on my micro SD card called jpeg and then transferred all photographs from the Garmin to the micro card. I erased all the pictures on the Garmin and then with TourPoint Editor I changed all the photograph links to my card and now I am limited by the size of my card.
This process could be used for historical sites, Barn Quilts, home sales, battlefield markers, country tours etc.

What did TourPoint Editor use as input and output to make the changes on the GPS?

If I understand the question right, my Garmin has a folder jpeg on it where one would put photographs in. On my computer Garmin is Drive G so the link is G:\JPEG\Arthur Foss Tug Boat.jpg for this boat.
Putting in a micro card shows that it is drive M on my computer. So on my micro card I enter a folder Garmin and under it I have a folder jpeg where I put all the photographs and then erase the ones on the Garmin. Then the link has to be changed to M:\garmin\JPEG\Arthur Foss Tug Boat.jpg in TourPoint Editor for that boat. I put it under Garmin so that if I come up with some other use for that card I would not erase the files. Then you are limited to how many photographs you can have by the size of your memory card.
I do not know how many other units you can do this to but one can only try.

I did a little research and I think I can now answer the question I posed.

Tourpoint Editor seems to do much the same thing that EPE does. It will create a GPX file that contains TourGuide info like "Proximity" along with a Link to "TourGuide_bomb.mp3" and "bomb.jpg".

I downloaded the Tutorial Resources for Tour Point Editor which can be found at
http://www.travelbygps.com/articles/TourPoint/tutorial.zip

Included is "MineField.gpx" which I opened in EPE.

One of the features of EPE is to "browse" for the links so it would appear that if one wanted to change the location of the jpg or mp3/wav files, it would be easy to do so.

I originally thought that kurzemnieks was reading the poi.gpi file from the GPS and making the change. However he was reading a GPX file and changing file references to the SD card.

@jgermann,

Yes. EPE has been doing that for a long time, but I never tried to add a link to a file on the SD card. The only link I used were to JPEG files that would be loaded along with POI Loader. It is a nice application.